Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire & Andrew Garfield Talk ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

Actors Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland have all donned the iconic Spider-Man suit, but 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was the first time they all got together on screen.

The film took home the biggest pandemic box office total after its release, with an opening day total of $121.5 million dollars. Adjusted for inflation, it had the second-biggest opening day behind “Avengers: Endgame.” It currently sits third in the list of all-time biggest openings, which is led by “Endgame” and followed by “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The film is currently sixth at the all-time global box office, with the possibility to go even higher. In a new interview with Deadline, the three actors sat down to talk about the film’s success.

During the Zoom call featuring all three actors, Holland said, “I mean, I always knew that this film would be loved around the world. I didn’t think it would be quite as massive as it had been.”

“I don’t think I could ever have imagined it as being so well received by everyone,” he continued. “I mean, I guess I had an idea that people would love this movie, but in no way, shape, or form could I have thought it was going to be as big as it has been.”

“And it’s been … only the last couple weeks that I have sort of really come back to reality and come home and started to face real-world problems, and it feels like we’ve been on some sort of really weird dream,” he added. “It feels really strange.”

Garfield has received critical acclaim for his recent performances in “tick, tick…BOOM!” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” However, he waited until Tobey Maguire confirmed his participation before deciding to move forward with “No Way Home.”

“Well, I was just waiting to see if Tobey was going to do it, and if Tobey was going to do it, then I was like, ‘Well, I have no choice,’ you know?” he joked. “I follow Tobey to the ends of the Earth. I’m a lemming for Tobey.”

“But that was sincerely a big part of it when I was approached about it,” he continued. “I love the destiny feeling of the multiverse expanding in this film, and actually, without Tobey’s Peter and Andrew’s Peter being present for Tom’s Peter at this very moment, he may not become the Peter Parker that he’s supposed to become. … Getting three Spider-Men together could go one of two ways, and I think it’s a testament to these guys that it went the way that it went, which was a brotherhood, which is just beautiful.”

Holland says that he was struck by how emotional it was to film some of the scenes together.

“There definitely was a sense for me, as an actor, that this was the last time that I could potentially don the suit, so a lot of that emotion came from the act of saying goodbye, which is one of the biggest themes throughout this film,” Holland explained. “But this film also felt like a celebration of three generations of cinema. So, at times, we would be getting into these scenes that were incredibly emotional.”

“I would get emotional at kind of how proud I was of the situation that we were in and what we were doing and that I really believed in what we were doing,” he continued. “So, yeah, it was tough, but you know, anything hard is worthwhile. I was happy to kind of really push myself and to make this film more emotional than superhero films have been in the past.”

It wasn’t just emotional on set. Holland said that he was “in pieces” the first time he watched the film.

“I watched the movie with Tobey for the first time, and I was in pieces,” Holland said. “Like, this is a deep movie. This is a movie that is about a coming of age, an acceptance of loss, acceptance of death, taking responsibility for your gifts. I was torn open by the journey that Tom went on; it’s classic Peter Parker, but it felt totally fresh and totally reimagined.”

“It is like, Tom’s origin story was happening in his third movie rather than his first,” he continued. “There’s something so profound. So the film, I feel, stands alone without me and Tobey showing up. I hope we enhance it, but I think [director] Jon Watts and Tom have made this something, actually, that is exceptionally moving, especially for young people, you know? I think it’s a beautiful film.”

Maguire echoed many of Holland’s thoughts.

“I was just grateful every day,” he added. “Really, it was such a rich experience and, as the guys have touched on, the kind of sharing of something and the brotherhood of it. It was just so rich, emotional.”

“I’m not sitting there conceptually thinking about that all the time, but I would have moments where that kind of stuff would hit me,” he continued. “You know, day to day, it was just a beautiful kind of unfolding of this story and these relationships.”

“And the way those films and characters evolved in those films are unique, and then to bring all of that together, including all of our supervillains and all of that, it was pretty wild to witness the immensity of all of this history coming together and being put into what Andrew was saying is this standalone, worthwhile story.”

When asked if Tom Holland will don the Spidey suit for another film, Holland replied, “I don’t know the answer to that question.”

“I don’t know,” he continued. “I know I love this character, and I know that I am not ready to say goodbye.”

“But if it’s time for me to say goodbye, then I will do so proudly, knowing that I’ve achieved everything I wanted to with this character, and sharing it with these boys will be forever one of the most special experiences of my career,” he added. “So, if it’s time, it’s time. If it’s not, it’s not. But at the moment, I don’t know.”